I have only just come across Linux MCE and so far from what I have read it seems to be exactly what I have been looking for.

I have been using Ubuntu on a few linux boxes for quite a while so was doubly please to find that linuxMCE seems to be based on this.

Of my experiences of linux in a desktop enviroment ubuntu so far has been top so this gives me a good feeling about this being the right way to go.

I am in the UK and currently I have sky+. I love the ability to be able to record 1 channel while watching another but this is tied to the room where the box is located and quite often I find I need to record 2 programs while watching another and want to be able to do this in any room i have a tv in so as you see I am experiencing a few drawbacks and restrictions which it looks as though linuxmce could solve.

After watching the mce video and having a good look around the forum I decided I would start putting together the parts i want to use to build the core for my setup

I have started with the Asus M2UPV-VM mother board as it seem from what I have read that this is what they develop on and then a AMD AM2 Athalon 64 dual core 4000, 1 gig RAM - will I have enough power here?

initialy the main functionality I need to get set up on this base is the sky+ style functionality. I am obviously going to need some tuner cards if I want to do this.

My plan is to have 2 conventional tuner cards taking their input from 2 different sky satalite boxes which from what I can make out I should be able to control with an ir usb dongle to change channels then I would like to have a third digital tv tuner to allow me to make use of all the freeview digital channels that are broadcast in the uk giving more channel options and recording possibilities.

I am wondering if any one can just make sure I am heading in the right direction with this and what I want to do is possible? I am also not sure about what choice of tunner cards to go with. i have read quite a few threads on this and hauppage is a name that keeps appearing. checking prices they go from £20 to £400, mpeg2 sounds as though it would be helpful, but can anyone suggest any models that are going to be upto the job but not overkill and un needingly be pushing up the prices.

I would also like to hook up my security cameras to the system, I currently have a Conexant BT878 based card, will I be able to get this setup in the system?

I want to be able to control the whole system with ipaq pdas if possibly as we already have a couple and have a blue tooth usb dongel. how stable is this as a method of controling stuff? I also like the look of the cutom remotes so maybe that is a better way to go.

I woulds also like to get a zwave control unit to be able to start controlling lights heating etc although it seems the module thingies are limited in the UK currently as we run on 230volts and this isn't compatible with all the US stuff.

for the Media Directors (md) or slim clients I think they are also refered to as, I have a few biostar 200n systems which I would like to make use of. currently they only have AMD sempron 2300 in so i am thinking of upgrading them to athalon 3200 should this be ok with 512 ram? these come with a built in ir port which I assume should allow the MD to turn the tv and audio on and off in thier respective rooms?

there are few more things I want to look into being able to do through linux mce but this, I think, is enough for now.

sorry for the long post and I hope its in the right place. I will start to get the parts shortly and keep you informed of how I get on and probably answer a lot on my own questions which hopefully will help others